Jun 24, 2013

Black Bear Falls

I've been working on this waterfall painting for ages it seems. First it was just a waterfall:

Then, as some of you know, I digitally added some mule deer from a separate painting:

This didn't seem quite right. This scene just screamed for a bear by the stream instead. So I decided to add a black bear. This time it was actually painted into the scene rather than added digitally:

Much better. But something's missing. It still needed more. I decided "mama bear" there needed a baby. I know, I know! You do not see small baby bears in an autumn scene like this but I decided to take a little artistic license here. Composition-wise, the mother bear just seemed to need something in front of it. There seemed to be a sort of 'hole' in the center there. A baby bear would fit that spot just fine. Besides, who doesn't love a a baby bear? :)

But, that wasn't all. In the spirit of James Meger, I decided to add some less noticeable elements to the scene. Besides the mother black bear and her baby, there are five other critters in the scene. The blue jay to the left is one obvious one. Can you find the rest, the frog, turtle, squirrel, and woodpecker?